Looking towards the truck design ‘Horizon’

If you visited the Navistar booth during the 2013 Mid America Trucking Show last week, you would’ve found it hard to miss its unique “Project Horizon” concept truck – and not just because it sat smack dab in the middle of OEM’s display, surrounded by a silvered, tubular fence, mind you.

Jack Allen, president of the company’s North America Truck and Parts subsidiary, noted that the “Project Horizon” vehicle highlights what he called the “near term” possibilities in terms of making commercial trucks more efficient and more driver-friendly.

“This is not a ‘way out there’ vehicle,” Allen said. “This is a ‘near term’ demonstration project, with the things you’ll see on this vehicle reaching the market 24 to 36 months from now.”

Lucky for me, I got to spend some time at the show with Chris Ito, director of design and innovation for Navistar’s vehicle product development team, and he graciously provided a detailed overview of some of the many different and often subtle design changes the OEM is experimenting with for its trucks:

I think the biggest takeaway for fleets from such concept vehicles is that nothing is too small on today’s commercial truck to be re-examined in terms of improving overall vehicle efficiency and longevity – as you can tell from the way even side marker lights were completely re-envisioned for “Project Horizon.”